Subtitle: Dealing With Your House's Dirty Little Secrets
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, 2016
Goodreads Description
“The dirty little secret about most organizing advice is that it’s written by organized people,” says blogger, speaker, and decluttering expert Dana K. White. “But that’s not how my brain works. I’m lost on page three.” Dana blogs at A Slob Comes Clean,chronicling her successes and failures with her self-described “deslobification process.” In the beginning she used the name “Nony” (short for aNONYmous), because she was sharing her deep, dark, slob secret. Now she has truly come clean—with not only her real name but the strategies she has developed, tested, and proved in her own home. She has learned what it takes to bring a home out of Disaster Status, which habits make the biggest and most lasting impact, and how to keep clutter under control.
In How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind, Dana explains that cleaning your house is not a onetime project but a series of ongoing premade decisions. Her reality-based cleaning and organizing techniques debunk the biggest housekeeping fantasies and help readers learn what really works.
With a huge helping of empathy and humor, Dana provides a step-by-step process with strategies for getting rid of enormous amounts of stuff in as little time (and with as little emotional drama) as possible.
My Review
If I enjoyed Erin Boyle's Simple Matters, I loved Dana K. White's How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind. It is bar none, the best book I have read to date on home organization and decluttering. White is practical, honest and relatable. I have quickly begun applying her techniques and am already seeing a positive difference in my home. Each day I continue to make progress and hold the line against clutter crawl.
Some of the tips that have been the most helpful so far include: doing the dishes daily, preferably right after they've been dirtied; asking myself where I would look for something if I were looking for it right now (and then putting it there), and dealing with visual clutter first. (Remember how I tackled my medicine and powder room cabinets after reading Boyle's book? Tsk-tsk. Deal with what people can see and what will make the most noticeable improvements before dealing with what's behind closed doors!)
White also addresses the problem of other people in your home. You can't worry about them; you have to work on yourself. My husband and son don't seem to notice any change, but I do. Instead of getting frustrated by their lack of appreciation and encouragement, I am forging on. Now I can't wait to read White's other book, Decluttering at the Speed of Life.
My Rating 5 out of 5 stars
Those are great tips, Susan. I’ve also sometimes started in the closet when really the bookshelf in the living room should be sorted out first. One thing I learned a long time ago was to put like with like. Plastic containers together with lids on, cookbooks together, authors together, etc. Things specific to the TV go on one of its shelves, i.e. the bill and the warranty. This has come in useful quite recently. ��
ReplyDeleteIt’s a little more difficult for you as there are other people in the house doing their thing. As you say though, you have to forge on anyway. Pj
Like with like just makes sense, doesn't it, Pj?! Glad you found these tips helpful. I will definitely share more as we go along.
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